performance of the forage crops of a new brassica genus and berseem clover under the temperate climate of ilam

the performance of new forage brassica plants were studied in ilam, iran, during 2012-2014 in a field experiment using a randomized complete block design with four replications. the treatments included, different forage crops perko, buko, oilseed radish, berseem clover, and the combination of three plants ramtil, phaselia, and clover. the studied traits consisted of plant height, forage yield, total dry weight, protein content, protein yield, the yield of digestible protein, percent organic carbon (before and after planting), the percentage of nitrogen in the soil (before and after planting). according to the combined analysis of variance, the results showed that there were significant difference in terms of plant height, total dry weight, forage yield and percentage of organic carbon of soil after planting, protein content, protein yield, the yield of digestible protein. the higher forage yield belonged to buko, perko and oilseed radish, with 69,938- 65,168 and 63,451 kg ha-1 , respectively, and the lowest biological yield was observed for berseem clover with 31298 kg ha-1.the higher total dry weight was observed for perko (6371.5 kg ha-1) and the lowest dry matter yield belonged to berseem clover 4408 kg ha-1. the highest and the lowest plant height of were observed in buko (54.6 cm) and clover (33.95 cm), respectively. the highest and the lowest protein percentage were found for buko (24.46%) and clover (18.72%), respectively. the highest and the lowest digestible amount of protein were achieved in buko (1203 kg ha-1) and clover (592.3kg ha-1), respectively. the highest and the lowest soil organic carbon percentage after planting of cultivars were observed in buko (1.71%) and oilseed radish (1.25%), respectively. the least increase in the percentage of organic carbon was observed for clover. overall, new forage cultivars of the brassica genus, showed significant superiority over berseem clover